Happy 2017! Hope you guys are having a great year so far. Last year at this time is when I began my wedding planning journey, and looking back at it I can definitely say learned a lot. Although there is so much that goes into planning a wedding, I want to share the one thing I found most important to successfully planning the wedding of your dreams.

For the first several months of my wedding planning process, I kept getting totally hung up on the fact that I was absolutely clueless about most of the aspects that make up a wedding (i.e. linens, flatware, different types of flowers, ceremony program wording, proper wedding nail polish colors, bridal fitness plans, wedding diets, facials, the list goes on…).

Yes, I was aware that Pinterest was supposed to be a bride’s best friend and I did spend many hours pinning every type of wedding picture I could find. However, nothing I saw felt perfect to me. I scrolled Instagram endlessly, picked up copies of Brides Magazine, read my wedding planners book (which truly is amazing), however, I couldn’t find a single picture that perfectly epitomized my dream wedding.

I finally realized that although the wedding pictures I was looking at were absolutely stunning, they weren’t portraying things that were specifically meaningful or sentimental to Drew and I.

So the secret is…stop worrying about how you’re going to make it better than the last wedding you attended, stop thinking about what you or other people think weddings should look like… but rather start thinking about what’s special to YOU and YOUR fiancé.

For Drew and I specifically, that meant s’mores, chocolate fountains, pink, baseball, Missoni, Hawaii, friends, family, Dan + Shay, barefoot golf tournament, red velvet cake, chocolate wedding cake, tacos to represent taco Tuesday where we first met, sushi because we went to sushi on our first date, pics at the tree where he proposed, holding the reception where I have had my birthday party for the past 20 years, a crazy after party b/c we love to party, chicken and waffles, skinny pop, personalized baseball caps, tequila, vodka coconut lemonades (our fave drink), chocolate chip cookies and a lot of them, my dad’s fave dessert coconut sorbet with chocolate sauce served in coconuts, acai bowls, Vandy vs Ole Miss themed brunch, Cracker Jack box favors, custom napkins, custom ice luge… the list goes on forever.

Think about all of the things that are special and meaningful to both of you, because in reality… the only thing that your guests want to see is that massive genuine smile on your face that you won’t be able to wipe off.

A few pics below that show some of the things we personalized at our wedding: